Empire State taxpayers spent at least $271,000 for Gov. Hochul to fly on state-owned aircraft over her first year in office amid sky-high fuel prices and a fierce election fight, a Post analysis has found.
“It’s very hard to see how this is putting the public interest first, given how costly it is to fly these aircraft,” said John Kaehny, executive director of government watchdog Reinvent Albany.
“There’s a long history now of the governors of New York acting like royalty and this is a part of that,” he added.
Hochul, 64, took 210 flights across New York on a Sikorksy S-76 chopper and King Air planes — with ribbon cuttings, phone calls, and virtual meetings often listed as the official business justifying the use of aircraft operated by state police.
Many of those flights coincided with “private” events that appear to be fundraisers and campaign stops as the Democrat Hochul built a record $60 million war chest ahead of her six-point win over Republican Lee Zeldin in the closest gubernatorial race in a generation.
“I would say it was an election year, and she blurred the lines between incumbency and campaign politics at the taxpayer’s expense,” said Conservative Party Chair Jerry Kassar, who supported Zeldin.
The flights include an hour-long July 5 jaunt on a leaded gasoline-spewing chopper — which costs about $2,500 per hour to operate — for Hochul to sign legislation in New York City aiming to reduce the state’s carbon footprint. She then immediately flew back to Albany, according to recently released public schedules for July, August and September.
Another chopper flight from Manhattan brought the governor to Albany for a call with Rochester Mayor Malik Evans and a virtual meeting with administration officials on Aug. 22 — ahead of two more “private” events that coincided with a $180,000 campaign cash haul for the day.
A Sept. 26 trip by the King Air plane, which costs about half the hourly rate of the helicopter, brought Hochul from Buffalo to the Big Apple, where she met with staff before five “private” events that coincided with approximately $225,000 in gifts to her campaign, records show.
Normal New Yorkers, meanwhile, were trying to recover from the hit their wallets took last summer, as gas prices soared to more than $5 per gallon in some locations.
These flights came on the tail end of a year when Hochul took many other questionable flights — including a September 2021 trip to watch her beloved Buffalo Bills play in their home opener.
“Gov. Kathy Hochul can try to defend her frequent use of state aircraft, but the latest release of her public schedule and inappropriate use of taxpayer funds is just more proof she is out of touch when it comes to understanding the financial difficulties of the average New Yorker,” said Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay (R-Fulton).
‘A governor is allowed to go home’
A Feb. 9, 2022 policy memo issued by the Hochul administration outlines how the governor and other officials are supposed to use state aircraft.
“The primary purpose of any trip must be a bona fide State purpose that is not merely a
pretext for engaging in non-State business,” reads the policy, which mandates reimbursement “based on current charter costs” for flights that don’t meet that standard.
Hochul has paid back the state for two dozen flights between July and September 2022, as well as others earlier in the year, following reporting by the Albany Times Union highlighting campaign events she held on the same day as her taxpayer-funded air travel.
Read Related Also: Olivia Dunne’s Rival Breckie Hill In Her Plunge Top Shows Busty ‘View’
“Everything we do is proper use of state aircraft. Everything I do is cleared by ethics and follows state policies that are in place,” Hochul said last summer when asked by The Post about her travel habits.
“And at the end of the day, a governor is allowed to go home. Buffalo is my home,” added Hochul — who also resides at the Executive Mansion in Albany, where state aircraft must remain at the start and end of each day.
This means that state police first had to fly the King Air, which she commandeered from the New York Power Authority last year, from Albany to Buffalo to pick up Hochul before she traveled to New York City on Sept. 26, with the plane then returning to Albany without her.
The combined costs of Hochul’s flights through early July 2022, including these repositioning flights, was about $250,000, according to a Post analysis of flight records obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request last summer.
Data showing repositioning costs were not available for the final six weeks of her first year in office — though records show at least $21,000 in additional costs just from the flights carrying Hochul from July through Aug. 23, 2022.
“A pretty ignominious achievement”
Hochul’s frequent flying habits put her in the same league as disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who also attracted criticism over his questionable use of state aircraft.
Records show Cuomo took 195 trips in 2017 on state aircraft, 189 the following year as he ran for reelection, and 220 more in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted travel.
After Cuomo resigned amid multiple scandals in August 2021, Hochul promised to remake state government along more ethical and transparent lines, an effort seemingly undermined by the more than 200 flights she took in her first year in office.
“That’s a pretty ignominious achievement, to be able to come in and close to matching his just incredible amount of use of state aircraft,” Kaehny said.
Hochul built her political brand as lieutenant governor by crisscrossing the state, often by car, to events in small communities across New York — but that approach makes much less sense now that she’s the state’s chief executive, according to Kaehny.
“It also makes you wonder how the governor and the governor’s staff have time to actually think and make sound decisions when the whole MO was just constantly flying and traveling every second, and that whole dynamic of always being hurried, always has to be there, always have to be there,” he said. “Why?”
Political rivals say Hochul’s use of state aircraft is a sign of how she has grown out of touch with New Yorkers while traveling around the state — supposedly on their behalf.
“At the end of the day, most people hail a cab, call an Uber, drive a car or ride the train,” Barclay said, “but the governor – despite repeated and warranted criticism – continues with her taxpayer-funded, high-expense luxury travel.”
A Hochul spokeswoman did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the ongoing criticism of the governor and her traveling habits.
